Fresh
by cottonflowers
Summary: We know how the Oceanic Six reacted to the island being moved...but what about those who stayed behind? Others-centric, mostly Juliet/Sawyer take on the first twenty-four hours after the island vanishes.
1. Chapter 1

**Story Information**

**Title**: Fresh

**Rating**: PG-13 overall, but chapters vary

**Summary**: We know how the Oceanic Six reacted to the island being moved...but what about those who stayed behind? Others-centric, mostly Juliet/Sawyer take on the first twenty-four hours after the island vanishes.

**Pairings**: Juliet Burke/James "Sawyer" Ford is the main one...

* * *

Rum; spilt. Rivulets of the alcohol poured forgotten across the sand, winding a thin river to the massive ocean, joining the waves as they crashed. Slowly, the bottle joined the fluctuation of the tide: rolling in, pulled out, ducking under. Neither Juliet nor Sawyer noticed.

"What -- where ---" Sawyer stammered, anger and confusion rising as he stood. Despite the ache of his exhausted muscles, which had been strained during the long swim back to the shore, he was barely conscious of the pain. Shading his eyes with one hand, he looked out over the water. The same waves arched and vanished, the same white-water crested, but the helicopter was gone. The freighter, which had hulked worrisome on the horizon, was gone too. Not even the shadow remained. "But," he tried again, then gave up. Turning to Juliet, he widened his eyes, silently demanding an answer.

Sitting in the sand, Juliet closed her eyes. She was more than a little drunk, but aside from the mild dizziness she felt, she could hardly tell that she'd consumed half a bottle of Dharma issue rum. Alone for a moment in the reddish mental darkness, she felt the world turn, then opened her eyes, reluctantly staggering upright. "Something happened," she spoke heavily. "That...light...."

"Yeah, what the hell was that about?" Sawyer asked. He scanned the sky, watched as the massive, flaming sun began to sink. The distant whirl of the helicopter was absent. "Somebody forget to push a button over at one of the other stations? Ah, Hell, never mind," he continued as Juliet regarded him blankly. Turning from her curiosity, Sawyer waded hip-deep in the water, squinting as he tried to see. "It's...."

"What?"

Shrugging, he glared. "I don't know."

"It's different," Juliet answered for him, and for the first time, Sawyer was able to appreciate that she was something more than just _an Other_, more than the enemy. "We should go find Ben."

Shocked, Sawyer whirled around, staring at her as she dusted the sand off of her legs. "And why would we want to do that?"

"Because he knows this island," Juliet explained. She could hear the rushing of the sea in her ears, muffled and deafening at the same time, and cringed. It had been so beautiful to her, when she had first arrived on the island, bubbling with excitement, caught up in the novelty of her adventure. _It's still beautiful_, she had to admit, but things had changed. Rather than being freeing, the ocean was a prison, keeping her trapped on the island with no way home. _A beautiful cage_, she thought grimly, smoothing back her windblown hair. "If anyone knows what just happened, it'll be Ben. I don't like it any more than you do, Sawyer," she added, as he glanced back over his shoulder at the smooth, endless expanse of sea. "But something has happened. We need answers." She took a few steps forward, then looked back, her shoulders sagging. Something inside felt broken, hopeless. _I don't want to be alone_. "You coming?"

He took a few steps backwards, the sand catching on his damp jeans, and gritted his teeth. Reluctant to leave the beach, he hedged for a moment, thinking of a good explanation for staying. _My stuff's here_, he thought. _And Kate -- Kate's out there somewhere_. None of that would make a difference to Juliet, though, he knew, so he squared his shoulders, moving after her. "All right, She-Ra," he spoke, with just a trace of his usual sarcastic humour. "You lead the way."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, you really think your guy is going to be able to help us?" Sawyer asked skeptically as he followed Juliet through the dense foliage of the jungle. It was slightly cooler than the beach because of the shade, but overwhelmingly humid. Sweaty, his clothes sticking to his saltwater-dampened skin, Sawyer felt his temper rise. Part of that was fuelled by incredible fear. When he had leapt out of the helicopter into the cool blue ocean, he had risked his life so that others could survive the journey over to the freighter. Kate, of course, had been foremost in his mind, but he could grudgingly admit that he had come to feel some sort of kinship with, or at least tolerance for, his fellow castaways. _So I jumped_, he thought bitterly. The _helicopter was out of fuel, and that was the only way to keep it going. But where did it go? _Unable to dwell on his worrisome thoughts, hardly able to bear not knowing, he turned back to the subject at hand. "Well?"

Juliet kept up the brisk pace. "I assume so, Sawyer," she said, rather sharply. "I'd hardly go searching for Ben if I didn't think he'd have some answers for us."

Tossing back his blonde hair, Sawyer considered this. "You trust him?"

She turned back to him, her pale blue eyes devoid of pretence. "No," she answered, after a moment's pause. "No, I don't." Thinking of the broken promises Ben had made to her, like his assurance she would be able to leave the island along with Jack, she shook her head. _All I wanted was to go home. To see Rachel, to finally meet Julian...but he wouldn't let me go. And he killed Goodwin, as good as murdered him himself._ The old anger welled up, but she bit her lip, glancing away from Sawyer, unwilling to let him see her cry. "But I know if anyone has the slightest inkling what's going on, it'll be Ben. I intend to find out what's happened."

"Think he did it?"

"Did what?" she asked, wearily.

Sawyer scoffed. "Blew up the freighter," he said. When Juliet looked back at him, confused, he shrugged. "Seems to me that's the only explanation. Boats don't blow themselves up, now do they, Nancy Drew? Hey, you're the one saying you want answers," he continued, as she glared at him. "You're telling me you're going to ignore the obvious when it's staring you in the face? If your boy Ben didn't have something to do with it, who?"

"He's not mine. I'm not one of them, Sawyer. I thought you understood that," Juliet said, her temper rising.

"Okay, okay, whatever." He held his hands up, palms out. "But seriously, do you have a better explanation?"

_No_, Juliet thought, but she was not prepared to admit that. "Something could have gone wrong onboard. Maybe a chemical spill, engine trouble...."

He offered a mirthless smile. "Sure."

"We'll know more when we find Ben." Juliet said steadily.

The grin expanded across Sawyer's face. "Then what are we waiting for?"

For several minutes, they moved through the jungle in silence. The only audible sounds were the muffled roar of the waves, which grew ever fainter as they continued toward the heart of the island, and the crush of underbrush beneath their feet. Juliet scoured their surroundings, looking for familiar features to tell her the way. It made her more than a little uncomfortable to realize how well she knew her way around, and how simple it was to find the paths that carried her back home. _That place_, she thought sharply, picturing the yellow houses, _is not my home_. Nonetheless, she continued moving on leaden legs. The walk made her sober, but no more steady. Tears threatened, and she could feel sobs rising in her throat, demanding to be cried. Whenever she let down her guard, she pictured Jack's face, and the questions came to mind again. _Where is he? What happened to them? He couldn't have been on that boat...._

"How well do you know him?" Sawyer asked after a little while, stealing Juliet from her macabre thoughts.

Branches cracked underfoot as she stepped over them. "Who?"

Sighing, Sawyer eyed her. "Henry. Ben. Whatever the Hell he's going by these days."

"He's been my employer for the last few years," Juliet said, although she knew that explanation did not begin to cover it. She thought of the book club meetings, after which he tended to linger, pretending he wanted to discuss the books further, and the private dinners she had stopped attending months earlier. Memories of him standing on a high slope leading down to the sandy beach flooded her. He had been the man responsible for Goodwin's death, whether or not it had actually been a plane crash survivor who had physically ended Goodwin's life. That death, Juliet knew, had been part of the plan. How he had looked, fierce and stung and jealous and tyrannical, all at once, when he had shouted at her that she belonged to him! The recollection made her flinch.

"What is it?" Sawyer asked, noticing her tension. "What's wrong?"

Feigning a vague smile, Juliet shrugged. "Nothing, nothing. Just thinking."

Critically, he looked her over. "About what?"

The smile faded. "About Ben."

A flicker of understanding passed across Sawyer's face, and he took several long strides, catching up with her. His hand reached forward, settling on her shoulder, though he pulled back immediately as she turned back to look at him. "What did he do to you?"

The question hit too close to home, and Juliet felt her face flush as she looked into Sawyer's eyes. For once, they were not sparkling with laughter nor radiating cold fury. He simply looked concerned, as though something she had endured, some pain that she felt, actually mattered. Avoiding his gaze, Juliet shrugged. "We'd better keep moving. We'll lose our light before we get to the bunkers, if we don't hurry."


	3. Chapter 3

Within the hour, they were back at the bunkers. From the safety of the dense jungle, which hid them from any potential prying eyes, Sawyer and Juliet stared out at the wreckage that had taken the place of the formerly neat, comfortable little village. Sawyer, who had been hiding with Ben inside one of the pristine yellow houses during the attack, looked over the ruins with grim understanding, but Juliet gaped, shocked.

"What happened?" she cried out, too disturbed by the scene to take caution and keep quiet. Covering her mouth with one hand, she stared wide-eyed at Sawyer.

His expression was hard, his lips twisted into a cold sneer. "Soldiers came," he told her, pushing aside a few branches and moving forward to get a better view. "Looks like they cleared out since," he added, thinking of the thick pillar of black smoke that had rushed into the jungle opposite where he now stood. The screams and gunshots had rent the air, but there had not been time to linger, or look back, and he had not witnessed the full scale of the attack, nor had there been time to survey the damage the bunkers had taken. "Come on. I think it's safe."

Smoothing back her hair in order to give her shaking hands something to do, Juliet followed Sawyer out into the clearing. She looked around, more startled and dismayed each time she turned. The bright yellow houses were riddled with bullet holes; some of the walls had been gouged by massive explosions, and the breakage had been so severe that she could see inside, to the sawdust that had formerly been furniture. Various windows had been broken by stones, bullets or grenades. The glass lay flat on the dry grass, dully reflecting the last of the sun. One house had been completely ruined by some sort of bomb. A grey, smouldering remnant remained, skeletal and tumbledown.

"Safe," Juliet laughed without pleasure.

"Keamy's men are gone, anyway," Sawyer amended. He picked his way through bits of walls, doors and shutters, and pointed at the house which had previously been occupied by Benjamin Linus. "That's the last place I saw Ben," he spoke evenly, striding up to the door. The blockade had been torn away when they had hastily departed, but furniture was still strewn across the living room haphazardly, most of it upturned or broken. "In there. He said it was too late to make a clean getaway, so...." Sawyer trailed off. His eyes, pained, spoke the truth for him, and he ducked his head, looking at the ground. "They came. We didn't have any weapons." Grimacing, he looked furiously back at the smoking ruin. "You want to know what kind of guy you've been working for? Claire was in that house, with the baby." As Juliet gasped, he continued. "He didn't want to waste time making sure they got to safety. I went instead. He wouldn't have let us into the house here, if Locke hadn't been there."

"Believe me," Juliet spoke slowly. "I know what kind of man he is." She thought of the agony he had put her through, keeping her a prisoner on the island, far away from her relatives. It had been torture, as sure as if he had stuck her with knives. The elusive promises of going home someday had kept her going as long as possible, but next week became next month, then next year, and soon enough she had realized Ben had no intention of letting her go, ever. The work scarcely mattered. He cared about the fertility project, of course, but whether or not that task was ever accomplished, he was not going to permit her to escape to a place he didn't have full control. Because of Ben, her dreams and goals had been lost to whims. Because of Ben, she had been unable to establish close relationships with anyone, despite her loneliness. He had taken her from her relatives. When she had finally found someone who was interested in her, who cared for her, Goodwin, Ben had taken that away too.

Sawyer nodded, watching Juliet's expression change from surprise to pain to simple melancholy. "Well, good," he spoke, unable to think of anything else to add. "Doesn't look like we're going to find him here though, does it? So, got any other ideas?"

"There are a few places we can look," Juliet said. Lifting her chin, she studied the sky. "But it's getting dark already. I don't think we should go through the jungle in the middle of the night. Whatever's normally out there, and those people from the freighter...."

Feeling the tired ache of his body, which had reached the point where further exertion was not possible for much longer, Sawyer agreed. "Okay."

"Not here. It's not safe. Those soldiers might come back." Juliet looked around, trying to get her bearings and come up with ideas. "Come on, I know a place not far from here, just a little over a mile. It's quiet, safe, secluded." As Sawyer raised his eyebrows, she gazed heavenward. "Not that secluded," she added, but despite the exasperation, it was fun to be able to joke with someone again. Something stirred deep within her, missing the closeness she had previously attained with Goodwin, the friendship and ease she had once, in the beginning, felt with Ben. "There will be food in there," she added, pointing to Ben's house. "We should get some supplies packed and head out. A couple days' worth of food, a change of clothes...."

Grinning, Sawyer nodded. "Shopping trip, I get it. Well, hey, ladies first," he added as Juliet bounded into the house ahead of him. "This should be fun."


End file.
